Banafsheh Eftekhari
Abstract
The history of atomism has begun from Ancient Greek. Greek atomism was materialist, causal, and Mechanical. Atomism whether the ancient atomism or modern version (after the seventeenth century), is regarded as a materialist theory. In medieval time, in the Islamic world, an atomistic theory was offered ...
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The history of atomism has begun from Ancient Greek. Greek atomism was materialist, causal, and Mechanical. Atomism whether the ancient atomism or modern version (after the seventeenth century), is regarded as a materialist theory. In medieval time, in the Islamic world, an atomistic theory was offered to explain nature by mūtikallimūn, (Muʿtazila and Ašʿarī). Opposite of Greek atomists, Muslim atomists were theists and they were called mūtikallimūn for begin devoted to Islam and Quran. Nonetheless, they have developed a theory that is similar in some aspects to the other atomistic theories; however, they were radical about God’s omnipotence. In this paper, I investigate the metaphysical structure of Kalām atomism in the respect that they are based on which belief, after a brief introduction. And then I analyze that those theist theorists developed a scientific account in physics, which protected their religious beliefs. I examine how the theory results in materialism and the exclusion of metaphysics, but not entailing atheism.
Banafsheh Eftekhari
Abstract
Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī is a thinker of the 12th century who had a significant role in the dialog between two philosophical doctrines of his age, i.e. Peripateticism and kalām. He followed peripatetic methods to develop kalām theories. Razī’s theory of motion is in the frame of kalām Atomism. ...
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Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī is a thinker of the 12th century who had a significant role in the dialog between two philosophical doctrines of his age, i.e. Peripateticism and kalām. He followed peripatetic methods to develop kalām theories. Razī’s theory of motion is in the frame of kalām Atomism. In this paper, I will show how the atomistic theory of motion is in interaction with Aristotelian fundamentals in Physics. I will show that Razi asserts discontinuity of motion, by relying on Aristotelian Continuity principles and rejecting to some premises. Then, I discuss the significance of this theory from the history of science’s view.